Final Fantasy XIII Sells One Million, Shatters Records

Square Enix has announced that Final Fantasy XIII has managed to sell no less than 1 million units in the first five days on sale, becoming the best selling title in the history of the franchise in the United States. The game was launched on both the Xbox 360 from Microsoft and on the PlayStation 3 from Sony, also a first in the history of the series.

It was outed on March 9 and its one million copies moved add up to those of previous titles bringing the total of the series up to 96 million units, which is significantly higher than the 53 million Dragon Quest, another major role playing series from Square Enix, managed in the whole world.

On the Japanese market, Final Fantasy XIII succeeded in selling 1.5 million units in its first week, despite a smaller install base for the PlayStation 3, showing that the fan base remains stronger in the country that created the JRPG.

The first Final Fantasy videogame came out on the Famicon console in 1987, the prehistory of videogames, and attained fame with the launch of Final Fantasy VII, the game to which all subsequent launches have been compared.

When the NPD Group numbers for March come up in about three weeks, it will be interesting to see which version of Final Fantasy XIII manages to sell better in the United States. The Xbox 360 version of the game was judged to be the inferior one in terms of looks by reviewers.

Final Fantasy XIII has not been very well received by critics, currently having an average score around 82 on Metacritic. The main problems with the release are its linearity, especially in the initial hours, the slow pace for introducing game mechanics and the lack of town visits featured prominently in the series before.